A barber caught red-handed taking appointments during lockdown has been fined – and ordered to cut it out.
Cops spotted a customer leaving under the shop shutter at Johnstone Turkish Barbers in the town’s High Street on Tuesday afternoon.
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They discovered the barber was still operating in breach of Covid-19 restrictions after going to investigate around 4.50pm.
A 43-year-old Glasgow man was issued with a Fixed Penalty Notice over the rule break and told to shut up shop.
Businesses deemed non-essential, such as hairdressers, are not allowed to open under current Level 4 coronavirus restrictions.
Inspector Allan O’Hare, from Renfrewshire’s community policing team, said the shutters were down and the shop appeared to be closed when the customer was seen leaving.
He praised officers for spotting the breach.
He explained: “This was good, diligent work by officers who acted upon their suspicions and thereafter traced the owner of the premises still operating his business when under current restrictions hairdressers and barbers should not be open.
“As a community, we are trying our best to minimise the spread of the virus and it’s not fair to those who are abiding by the regulations and trying to do their bit when others are blatantly disregarding them.”
A Renfrewshire Council spokesman sounded a warning to businesses to continue to comply with all restrictions, or face further action.
He said: “Businesses breaching legislation are risking people’s health, their business and access to government grant support and our public protection team are working closely with Police Scotland to ensure Renfrewshire businesses comply with the law.”
Across Renfrewshire, there were 289 new covid cases confirmed in the week to February 14.
It means the rate of infection is 153 per 100,000, higher than the Scottish average.
Many more deaths have also been recorded, with 19 fatalities recorded between February 4 and 10.
It brings the death toll for Renfrewshire to 435.
Johnstone Turkish Barbers declined to comment when contacted by the Express.
